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[Bardiche]

Still going to get this even if a slew of negative reviews come up tomorrow.
Mario Party never scored big with the critics, and I've always been impressed with Mario Party titles on the handhelds, so I'm going for this on day one.
When it comes to other Mario Party titles, Mario Party 4 is so underrated. I can understand all the love for Mario Party 3, but I've never understood all the hate for Mario Party 4. I thought the stages like Goomba's Greedy Gala and Koopa's Seaside Soiree were interesting, while mini-games like Booksquirm and Order Up were really fun with friends.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

No online play is really a killer. With local multiplayer I'd rather play on a TV.

 

[Mega Man's Electric Sheep]

I hated Mario Party 4 because it has so few minigames compared to the standard 80 plus the other games have. The first time we played, the same minigame repeated 3 times in the same 20 turn game!

I still have hope for Island Tour, because Mario Party DS was fun.

 

[EulaCapra]

For real? No 1 vs. 3 or 2 vs. 2 mini-games in this one? The hell... And confirmed that Rosalina is not playable and the removal of Birdo and Toadette for this one yet again.

Will still get it... begrudgingly.

 

[hypostatic]

This should have been a fullly-fleshed out Wii U title. Sadz.

 

[Berordn]

This should have been a fullly-fleshed out Wii U title. Sadz.

The same studio that made this one already released Wii Party U this year. Would have cannibalized sales if they put out two console party games less than a month apart.

 

[Bardiche]

I hated Mario Party 4 because it has so few minigames compared to the standard 80 plus the other games have. The first time we played, the same minigame repeated 3 times in the same 20 turn game!

I still have hope for Island Tour, because Mario Party DS was fun.

That's true. You guys probably played the same 1 vs 3, or 2 vs 2 minigames over and over again, since they each had like 9 minigames total. I remember seeing the same battle minigames over and over again -_-. I think the only Mario Party games that had less minigames than 4 was the first one and Mario Party Advance. I guess I liked some of the minigames and the overall presentation of 4, although the amount of minigames were lacking.

I don't understand why Island Tour is being released along with 3D World and Zelda: ALBW. Island Tour is going to be ignored with these two giants coming out.

 

[Sp3eD]

This should have been a fullly-fleshed out Wii U title. Sadz.

You should really think about giving wii party u a try. I was completely floored with how much stuff is in that game and how much fun I'm having with it.

 

[Shaffield]

ok guys fuck the reviews, a friend and i spent like 2 and half hours playing the mini-game tournament mode last night and it was a goddamn blast

dat single-cart download play. do your friends a favor and pick this game up if youre into local mp

 

[Shaffield]

there is this game where you have to move around the 3ds camera to find mario characters in a landscape and take their picture before anyone else

guys it was one of the funnest things i have ever played in my life

 

[Pezking]

Nope, that would be Mario Party 9 on Wii.

That would explain things, because MP9 was flat out horrible.

Such a shame...I thought the trailer for Island Tour looked much better than MP9. But I'm still waiting for more reviews. Won't be able to buy it for another 2 months anyway since I'm european.

 

[Thomas_Daly]

I so want Mario party 10 on wii u

classic Mario party

non of that Mario party 9 bull crap

 

[Plinko]

That would explain things, because MP9 was flat out horrible.

Such a shame...I thought the trailer for Island Tour looked much better than MP9. But I'm still waiting for more reviews. Won't be able to buy it for another 2 months anyway since I'm european.

Do not listen to this guy.

 

[n64coder]

I think this is sort of uncharitable. 5, 6, and 7 are quite stale as he notes--but the worst instalment by far is 8, and 9 is a massive recovery.

The bulk of this review centers around how unenjoyable the 1-player game is. This does not surprise me. I played exactly one 1-player game of Mario Party 9 and I'm not sure I played any of Mario Party DS. Focusing on this mode is an error. Of course it is not a problem to say "Mario Party is not fun as a single-player game, and since this game does not have an online mode, you will be limited to playing this when you have friends on the couch next to you that also have 3DSes". But I would expect a deeper assessment of how well the game plays in that use case. When I buy Mario Party 3DS, it will be to play with friends.

I agree that 8 was the worse. It took so long to get through the game. I haven't played too much of 9 to have an opinion. I have all of the MP games and did pre-order this one. At least the kids and I will be able to do the local multi-player option. Thankfully we only had to buy 1 cartridge.

 

[maxcriden]

Sales would seem to indicate that Mario Party and Wii Party are equally popular. Don't have anything recent on MP9 or WPU, though I'm willing to be the latter bombed as a victim of circumstance.

I checked into this because I was curious. It seems MP9 sold 2.24 M copies by 9/12 (6 mos of sales), and WP sold 7.94 M copies by 3/12 (1.5 - 2 years of sales). MP8 sold 7.6 M copies as of 5/10 (3 years of sales). At the very least, this seems to indicate the WP brand is just as strong, or a bit strong, than the MP brand, at least further into the Wii generation.

 

[DasMarcos]

Do not listen to this guy.

TOTALLY agree. MP9 was great fun. It changed the formula, but a change was in order I think.

It would be nice if future games provided both MP formats, and it could let us choose which to utilize on a board. That would be incredible.

 

[zroid]

Nintendo Life: 6/10

Even with the misfires and shortcomings plaguing the game boards, we believe Mario Party: Island Tour may still be a sound purchase for kids, families or anyone looking to play with friends. Those seeking a long-lasting single-player experience may want to steer clear though, as there isn't enough depth to the solo-focused modes to keep you engaged for very long. Island Tour doesn't do much different from it predecessors, and the throwaway boards — coupled with some forgettable game modes — definitely hurt the overall experience in a big way. Thankfully, the great collection of mini-games ensures that there may be enough reason for many people to roll the dice.

 

[maxcriden]

Nintendo Life just posted their review:

Conclusion

Even with the misfires and shortcomings plaguing the game boards, we believe Mario Party: Island Tour may still be a sound purchase for kids, families or anyone looking to play with friends. Those seeking a long-lasting single-player experience may want to steer clear though, as there isn't enough depth to the solo-focused modes to keep you engaged for very long. Island Tour doesn't do much different from it predecessors, and the throwaway boards — coupled with some forgettable game modes — definitely hurt the overall experience in a big way. Thankfully, the great collection of mini-games ensures that there may be enough reason for many people to roll the dice.

6/10

http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/3ds/mario_party_island_tour

 

[maxcriden]

Zeeer0id!!!! >:{

 

[zroid]

>

Nintendo World Report: 8.5/10

Mario Party: Island Tour is a fantastic addition for the 3DS. The graphics are crisp and utilize 3D well, while the music fits each game and board without becoming monotonous. Every mode and board is easy to pick up and play with anyone, anytime.. Island Tour is a perfect balance of old and new that keeps the game fresh with playing styles to meet every need. It’s exactly what you want out of a portable party game, complimenting the 3DS effortlessly, and bringing a perfectly suited party game to the console that is long overdue.

IGN: 5.5/10

Mario Party: Island Tour’s single-player campaign is laughably bad, and the ambitious, content-rich multiplayer options and unique game boards are ultimately dragged down by mostly boring minigames and unfortunate system-jerking motion control. A group of friends might only have fleeting good times with this collection.

 

[maxcriden]

>

Nintendo World Report: 8.5/10


IGN: 5.5/10

Pretty polarizing reviews!

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

3.5 / 5 from GameXplain for multiplayer (2.5 for single)

http://youtu.be/pojFm2HCduk

 

[zroid]

added a few more to the op

overall it definitely seems like "Mario Party: The Mario Party"

 

[willybobo]

there is this game where you have to move around the 3ds camera to find mario characters in a landscape and take their picture before anyone else

guys it was one of the funnest things i have ever played in my life

This sounds amazing.... subversively cues up paparazzo and peeping tom fantasies involving furries. May have to pick up used soonish.

 

[randomengine]

I don't think most major review places are taking this review seriously.

IGN for example says the solo play sucks.
Nintendo World Report says that the game has an extensive solo mode (as a plus).

In times like this I defer to Nintendo World Report. I don't trust IGN to give a fair view since they probably are too busy reviewing other games in the same period and gloss over this game.

 

[randomengine]

The major review houses, to me, are becoming irrelevant because they only review 50% of the games out there for each system and only review the multiplatform games on ONE system. This is unacceptable.

Take a look down any release list for any system on metacritic and you see more unreviewed games than reviewed ones. I want impressions of ALL the games, not just the popular ones.

 

[zroid]

I don't think most major review places are taking this review seriously.

IGN for example says the solo play sucks.
Nintendo World Report says that the game has an extensive solo mode (as a plus).

In times like this I defer to Nintendo World Report. I don't trust IGN to give a fair view since they probably are too busy reviewing other games in the same period and gloss over this game.

Well I can't speak to the overall quality of IGN's review as I didn't read it, but I do know that in this case the reviewer is a freelancer, so how busy IGN is shouldn't really be a factor. In fact, the freelancer in question is a staff member of NWR.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

Mario Party on a handheld has to be one of the worst things ever invented.

 

[randomengine]

Well I can't speak to the overall quality of IGN's review as I didn't read it, but I do know that in this case the reviewer is a freelancer, so how busy IGN is shouldn't really be a factor. In fact, the freelancer in question is a staff member of NWR.

This is also why context is so important in reviews. Knowing more about the reviewer enhancing our knowledge of their review. What other games does this guy like, dislike, why? Something is wrong when you have two people saying divergent things. Which to trust and why?

 

[Linkhero1]

Mario Party on a handheld has to be one of the worst things ever invented.

Agreed. Were they thinking that they could get away with selling additional copies of the game so people could play with their friends? lol

 

[zroid]

This is also why context is so important in reviews. Knowing more about the reviewer enhancing our knowledge of their review. What other games does this guy like, dislike, why? Something is wrong when you have two people saying divergent things. Which to trust and why?

That is definitely true. I don't mind looking at a wide arc of reviews just in curiosity, but in the cases where I actually want to refer to them as a buyer's guide, I will need to know what the reviewer's tastes are.

Agreed. Were they thinking that they could get away with selling additional copies of the game so people could play with their friends? lol

haha well there's download play, so I don't think that was in the cards

 

[randomengine]

Mario Party on a handheld has to be one of the worst things ever invented.

I personally think it is a great idea.

I love tabletop games. I go to GenCon every year. I love that Mario tabletop game experience and would love to play it with my friends who also own a 3DS.

Singleplayer board games are also a thing in the tabletop community. Sometimes getting people together to play is hard, but you still want to enjoy a board game.

 

[randomengine]

No online play is really a killer. With local multiplayer I'd rather play on a TV.

Online play would be shit. You canno't expect people online to stick around, so you'd have them jumping in and out of a session all the time. They could provide ZERO feedback, might as well play against a bot.

I don't understand this gamer obsession with online play. Every game I played online, I met assholes as far as the eye can see. The only times I didn't have some asshole ruin my experience, is when I cannot discern them from a bot, in the case of Journey, in which case, they might as well be a bot.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

I personally think it is a great idea.

I love tabletop games. I go to GenCon every year. I love that Mario tabletop game experience and would love to play it with my friends who also own a 3DS.

Singleplayer board games are also a thing in the tabletop community. Sometimes getting people together to play is hard, but you still want to enjoy a board game.

If you go to cons or have lots of friends with a 3DS that's pretty far outside the norm.

 

[cafemomo]

Nintendo, go revive Hudson

 

[randomengine]

If you go to cons or have lots of friends with a 3DS that's pretty far outside the norm.

You think there are people in Japan that don't have friends with a 3DS?

Gamestop is selling tabletop games, btw. They apparently don't sell many PC games anymore, but they stock tabletop games in-store. Interesting trend.

Just because America is littered with people deserts with more land than people (where the next 3DS gamer is physically located 100 miles away), doesn't mean this game is crap or inferior. Maybe it simply does not appeal to you.

 

[Waluigilicious]

We have three 3ds in the house for each sibling so this is a must buy for us.

 

[Berordn]

Agreed. Were they thinking that they could get away with selling additional copies of the game so people could play with their friends? lol

You can play the entire game with up to four people in download play, with zero restrictions. Mario Party DS was the same.

 

[Sp3eD]

Game is awesome. Played the first two game boards by myself and had a blast. The only thing I really don't like is how the first dice roll is your order for the rest of the game. Seems like the 4th player, (which was me both times) is pretty handicapped. Especially on bullet bills board.

 

[Megatron]

What is up with Nintendo releasing three games on one day? They sent this game out to die. They should probably have kept it until Spring to try to make it a better game but I guess they gots ta have dem Christmas sales...

 

[Bardiche]

Gamespot 7/10

It's not a perfect party by any means, but some good design considerations, better-than-average variety, and always-enjoyable Mario thematics put Mario Party: Island Tour a few notches above your average video game bash-in-a-box. It's nicely portable, uses the hardware well, and has a mostly good minigame mix, making this the easy-to-play multiplayer vacation you've been looking for.

The review is more generous than I thought.

 

[zroid]

Gamespot 7/10



The review is more generous than I thought.

Gamespot is usually incredibly harsh with 3DS reviews, so yeah, I'm surprised :lol

 

[Stumpokapow]

Played three rounds on three different boards. Download play is pretty quick and once you're in there load time is minimal. Some of the games introduced a limited amount of lag over download play. You can close your 3DSes and re-open them and have the game resume but we managed to get a desync once by closing all the 3DSes and only re-opening some of them so don't screw around much.

Objective on two of the boards was "get to the end first", with minigames incentivizing faster movement. No stars or coins, just go fast. Third board was "get the most mini-stars", but you got mini-stars basically by getting to the end first. As a result, I can't say I recommend the boards I've played yet. One board (the rainbow road / Mario Galaxy board) had basically no minigames. There's a little tiny bit of strategy and we had some light backstabbing, but I can't help but feel that the boards a less engaging than they were in 9 or some of the other better instalments. I'll have to re-play a game of MP DS sometime soon to compare. Still tons of super-slow menus, text, dice-rolling, movement, etc. It's impossible to have a quick run through a board.

Characters unlocked by default were Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario, Daisy, and one other can't remember off the top of my head. There appeared to be 7 boards of which 6 were unlocked by default. I'm not sure if I'm recalling this correctly, and since I was a downloader, not the host, I haven't played around with the menus.

Minigames are mix of luck and skill based. One that I really enjoy involves fast-forwarding or rewinding a film reel to get to a frame shown on the touch screen. Haven't tried any mic games yet. Games generally seem to control well, absent one that involved 3d rotation of objects by rotating the 3DS which totally failed. No 2v2 or 3v1.

Digital instruction book.



Tentatively I'd say right now that if you're looking for a top shelf Mario Party experience, hold off. But if you like every Mario Party you'll probably like this, it's functional. My first experience was not super positive.

 

[zroid]

Thanks for the impressions, Stump

 

[TheBanditKing]

Sending this straight back to Amazon (wish it hadn't shipped) really mad about this being so bad, the DS one was a lot of fun.

 

[Polioliolio]

Played three rounds on three different boards. Download play is pretty quick and once you're in there load time is minimal. Some of the games introduced a limited amount of lag over download play. You can close your 3DSes and re-open them and have the game resume but we managed to get a desync once by closing all the 3DSes and only re-opening some of them so don't screw around much.

Objective on two of the boards was "get to the end first", with minigames incentivizing faster movement. No stars or coins, just go fast. Third board was "get the most mini-stars", but you got mini-stars basically by getting to the end first. As a result, I can't say I recommend the boards I've played yet. One board (the rainbow road / Mario Galaxy board) had basically no minigames. There's a little tiny bit of strategy and we had some light backstabbing, but I can't help but feel that the boards a less engaging than they were in 9 or some of the other better instalments. I'll have to re-play a game of MP DS sometime soon to compare. Still tons of super-slow menus, text, dice-rolling, movement, etc. It's impossible to have a quick run through a board.

Characters unlocked by default were Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario, Daisy, and one other can't remember off the top of my head. There appeared to be 7 boards of which 6 were unlocked by default. I'm not sure if I'm recalling this correctly, and since I was a downloader, not the host, I haven't played around with the menus.

Minigames are mix of luck and skill based. One that I really enjoy involves fast-forwarding or rewinding a film reel to get to a frame shown on the touch screen. Haven't tried any mic games yet. Games generally seem to control well, absent one that involved 3d rotation of objects by rotating the 3DS which totally failed. No 2v2 or 3v1.

Digital instruction book.



Tentatively I'd say right now that if you're looking for a top shelf Mario Party experience, hold off. But if you like every Mario Party you'll probably like this, it's functional. My first experience was not super positive.

Thanks for this.

Sounds like it's not what I was hoping it would be.

Don't like ministars, and don't like 9. Love 2v2 and 3v1 games. Miss the old Mario Parties... Guess I'll hold off on this.

 

[Chrom]

Wait, there are no 2v2 or 3v1 minigames in Island Tour? What?

 

[Zalman]

Mario Party is one of my favorite franchises of all time. It's just plain fun. A shame to see that the latest iterations are so terrible. I even liked some of the GameCube ones, but since then it has done nothing for me.

Hoping for a return to form when a Wii U game eventually comes out.

 

[BassForever]

Wii Party franchise has left the Mario Party franchise in the dust, the good mini games and board ideas are all in that franchise now

 

[The Lamp]

Played three rounds on three different boards. Download play is pretty quick and once you're in there load time is minimal. Some of the games introduced a limited amount of lag over download play. You can close your 3DSes and re-open them and have the game resume but we managed to get a desync once by closing all the 3DSes and only re-opening some of them so don't screw around much.

Objective on two of the boards was "get to the end first", with minigames incentivizing faster movement. No stars or coins, just go fast. Third board was "get the most mini-stars", but you got mini-stars basically by getting to the end first. As a result, I can't say I recommend the boards I've played yet. One board (the rainbow road / Mario Galaxy board) had basically no minigames. There's a little tiny bit of strategy and we had some light backstabbing, but I can't help but feel that the boards a less engaging than they were in 9 or some of the other better instalments. I'll have to re-play a game of MP DS sometime soon to compare. Still tons of super-slow menus, text, dice-rolling, movement, etc. It's impossible to have a quick run through a board.

Characters unlocked by default were Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario, Daisy, and one other can't remember off the top of my head. There appeared to be 7 boards of which 6 were unlocked by default. I'm not sure if I'm recalling this correctly, and since I was a downloader, not the host, I haven't played around with the menus.

Minigames are mix of luck and skill based. One that I really enjoy involves fast-forwarding or rewinding a film reel to get to a frame shown on the touch screen. Haven't tried any mic games yet. Games generally seem to control well, absent one that involved 3d rotation of objects by rotating the 3DS which totally failed. No 2v2 or 3v1.

Digital instruction book.



Tentatively I'd say right now that if you're looking for a top shelf Mario Party experience, hold off. But if you like every Mario Party you'll probably like this, it's functional. My first experience was not super positive.

Very disappointed in hearing this. Guess I won't buy.